Caregiving has been associated with increased levels of fear and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) during COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is a lack of studies that analyze when the relationship between fear and PTSS occur, using informal caregiving as a moderator variable. To explore this moderating role, we conducted a cross-sectional online study between November 2020 and January 2021. A total of 503 men and women from the Spanish general population completed the survey. Sociodemographic and Covid-19-related data, fear of COVID-19, PTSS symptoms, and current psychological history were assessed. Prevalence of informal caregiving in the sample was 16.5%. Increased levels of fear and PTSS were found in caregivers compared to non-caregivers. Female gender and high number of COVID-19 related risk factors was also associated with fear and PTSS severity. The moderation analyses showed an interaction effect between caregiving and fear of COVID-19 when predicting PTSS symptoms. Particularly, results showed that informal caregivers reported greater PTSS symptoms, when compared to non-caregivers with same levels of fear of COVID-19. This evidence suggests that being a caregiver could increase the fear’s impact on PTSS severity in the context of pandemics. Further studies with larger samples are needed to confirm these findings.
【저자키워드】 Pandemics, Caregiver, COVID-19 fear, Informal caregiver, post-traumatic symptoms, 【초록키워드】 COVID-19, cross-sectional, COVID-19 pandemic, severity, Gender, risk factor, Symptoms, Psychological, General population, Evidence, Analysis, interaction effect, Spanish, greater, lack, reported, conducted, occur, Increased, men and women, post-traumatic stress symptom, were assessed, 【제목키워드】 COVID-19, fear, role,